But the just-closed school of 12,000 students still has the right to re-open if it wins its Ohio Supreme Court fight over finances with the Ohio Department of Education.

An agreement Thursday morning between Judge Michael Holbrook, ECOT and its sponsor/authorizer, the Educational Service Center of Lake Erie West (ESC), names lawyer Myron N. Terlecky of Strip, Hoppers, Leithart, McGrath & Terlecky as "interim master" as the school shuts down, at least for the time being.

The ESC suspended school operations last week because of financial problems at the school. Though the state is still providing funding to ECOT to educate its students, it is deducting about $4 million per month from those payments.

The school has estimated that it would be broke in March, so the ESC shut it down at the end of its second quarter to avoid a mid-term closure.

Terlecky will now take control of all of ECOT's bank accounts and records and manage finances as the school shuts down. He will also makes sure ECOT meets other required duties, including "securing and transferring student educational records, staff records, administrative records and financial records and securing and distributing assets of the ECOT pursuant to the priorities required by law."

ECOT will continue as a non-profit corporation, maintain a board and can continue legal action over $80 million in disputed overpayments the state says ECOT was paid in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years.

"If...ECOT succeeds in the Supreme Court Case, ODE's funding clawbacks will necessarily have been unlawful, and ECOT will seek to recover all of the funds withheld by ODE beginning in July 2017," the agreement states.